BOOK II. selves concerned in it. Several of the Scottish lords were set at liberty, on giving their words of Lenity of honor not to disturb the government: but lord vernment. Arran refused, saying, "he was certain he should

the Go

not keep it." Upon the whole, the session of parliament, which opened with so dark an aspect, terminated very prosperously. During the sitting, also, it was announced that a body of highlanders to the number of about 2000, commanded by the colonels Buchan and Wachop, who had rendezvoused at Strathspey, with a view to a descent into the low country, were surprised and defeated with great slaughter by the king's troops under sir Thomas Levingstone.And this was the last military effort of any consequence made by the party of king James in Scotland.

The power of the church being now in the hands of the presbyterian clergy, the episcopalians suffered from the former sufferers a persecution as rigorous as the benign spirit of the new government would permit. For, though the history of the world exhibits no characters more illustrious than those of many individuals of the clerical order whose ardent and generous minds have as it were burst the bonds of their own intellectual thraldom, no truth is more certain, as a general axiom, than that priests of all religions are the same-all, collectively speaking, tainted with the spirit of holy malignity, of lordly pride, of barbarous dog

matism, of relentless intolerance. All this is very BOOK II. consistent with the practice of many amiable and estimable virtues in social and domestic life. Such is the imbecility of human nature, and such the pernicious and fatal tendency of this aspiring and dangerous profession:-" having," as has been observed, "what Archimedes only wanted, another world on which to fix their engines, no wonder they move this world at their pleasure." A general assembly as it is styled, or synod of the church of Scotland, having been convened in the autumn of the present year, 1690, the proceedings of the clergy were so disagreeable to the court, that the assembly was, little to their satisfaction, dissolved by an act of state, and another convoked for the following year. In the mean time the king determined in some measure to restore the balance of the parties, by bringing some of the tories and episcopalians into office. The earl of Melville, as the man most obnoxious, was removed from his post of secretary of state, and made lord privy seal. James Johnstone, late envoy to the elector of Brandenburg, and sir John Dalrymple, styled the master of Stair, were constituted joint secretaries; lord Tweeddale, created a marquis, a man of sense and moderation, was appointed chancellor; the earl of Lothian, high commissioner; and the earl of Crawford, president of the council. But this motley administration

BOOK II. did not conduct the affairs of government with much skill or success. The general assembly

met at the close of the year 1691; and during the
recess of parliament the two parties were eager
to try their strength in this subordinate scene of
action. The presbyterians since the late changes
were grown extremely jealous of the court. They
said their friends were disgraced, and their bitterest
enemies were admitted into favor. The king re-
commended to the assembly, by the high com-
missioner, to receive the episcopal clergy into the
church, and to concur in such measures as would
be necessary to effect a general comprehension.
"The prelatists now gave out," says bishop Burnet,
"that the king was theirs; in answer to which
the presbyterians affirmed that the law was theirs,
and they would abate in no point of their govern-
ment.' Both parties being much inflamed, and
no likehood of accommodation remaining, the
king ordered the assembly to be dissolved, without
appointing any other time or place of meeting.
But the presbyterian clergy, according to their
high notions of church government, affirmed, that
they had a right to an annual meeting, from
which nothing could cut them off-They pre-
tended that the king's power of calling synods
and assemblies was cumulative, and not privative
-that is, he might call them if he would, and
appoint time and place; but that, if he did not

*

BOOK II.

convene them, they might meet by virtue of the right inherent in the church :--therefore they adjourned themselves, having first protested against the regal dissolution. This appeared to the king an high strain of insolence, and a gross invasion of the prerogative of the crown; and there were Burnet. not wanting those who were eager to embrace every opportunity of incensing him against the presbyterians. Thus the episcopal party acquired additional credit with the king: for in this respect the folly and fury of one faction operated in much the same manner as the actual exercise of wisdom and moderation in the other.

of Glencoe,

At this period a very unfortunate event took Massacre place, tending to throw a great odium upon the government of the king, already sufficiently unpopular. The earl of Breadalbane, one of those noblemen who had been concerned in the late plot and received his pardon, in order to conciliate the favor of the court, formed a scheme of quieting the highlanders, and ensuring their submission, by distributing large sums of money among their chiefs: and 15,000l. were remitted from England for this purpose. By the connivance of government he informed the highlanders, who were not unacquainted with his zeal in the same cause, that the best service they could do king James was to lie quiet, and to reserve themselves to a more favorable time; and in the mean

BOOK II. While they were justified in taking the oaths, and sharing the money he had received for the purpose among them. Many of the highland chieftains were persuaded by his arguments to a compliance; but others were obstinate, or made such extravagant demands, that lord Breadalbane found his scheme with regard to them impracticable. The most refractory of these rebel chieftains was M'Donald of Glencoe, between whom and Breadalbane a cause of private animosity subsisted, originating, as it is said, from an antient feud between the families. During the course of hostilities M'Donald had plundered the lands of Breadalbane; and this nobleman insisted upon being indemnified for his losses, from McDonald's share of the money now to be distributed. This McDonald not only absolutely refused, but was successfully assiduous in influencing others to reject the offers made to them. He also communicated to the duke of Hamilton and other enemies of lord Breadalbane the dangerous secret of this nobleman's being still avowedly attached to the interests of the dethroned monarch. Breadalbane, exasperated at this conduct, by an act, not of sudden passion, but of cool and deliberate revenge, devoted the chieftain and his clan to utter destruction. King William had by proclamation offered an indemnity to all the highlanders who had been in arms against him, provided they